Four out of every 100 barrels of American craft beer rolls out of San Diego County.

Postpone the Beerpocalypse. While many U.S. craft brewers have been fretting about slowing sales, some even predicting that a craft beer “bubble” is ready to burst, San Diego’s brew crew is bubbling with optimism.

That’s one take-away from a study released last week by California State University, San Marcos. By almost every measure, the locals are outpacing the nation. In 2017, for instance, U.S. craft beer sales rose 8%; in San Diego County, the increase was about 26%.

And while craft beer production in the U.S. climbed a respectable 5% in 2017, it jumped 22% locally. In fact, four out of every 100 barrels of American craft beer rolls out of San Diego County.

As the accompanying chart shows, 28% of all local breweries last year enjoyed increased production of more than 30%. If this is a bubble, it seems to be a durable one.

Peter joined The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1984. A native Californian who grew up in Encinitas, Rowe is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former Fulbright scholar. He has won a few journalism awards, but would trade them all for a chance to avenge his 1994 “Jeopardy!” loss. Married to a terrific woman who has saved him from errors in writing and in life, he has three sons. At the U-T, Rowe writes profiles and features and is even paid to review beers, which hardly seems fair.